Interview with Celine Pinet, Ph.D., Chair of Applied Arts and Sciences (AAS) Division and Interior Design, Auto Cad Instructor

MJ: I notice that ALL of the potential tutors that you identify and refer seem so eager and highly motivated to help your students. What in your eyes makes a good potential tutor-besides competence with Auto Cad? How do you identify, select and encourage potential tutors?

CP: Some students emerge in my classroom as being competent in Auto Cad, as well as being helpful to their classmates. I encourage this behavior by telling the whole classroom about their skills and helpfulness and that we are all quite thankful to have this kind of student in our class. This reinforces the positive behavior in that student and stimulates others to follow on the same path of being helpful to classmates. This prepares potential students to "tutorship".

MJ: What are the qualities that you look for in a potential tutor?

CP: I look for patience and kindness, a great willingness to help and a certain resourcefulness or an ability to find the answer when faced with a totally new, problematic CAD situation.

MJ: Sometimes students can't keep up with the general flow of your class. They know it and realize that they must get help. Your neutral behavior in praising students who help others also encourages other students to seek out assistance.

CP: Yes. This also leads classmates that have more difficulty to reach out for help by asking those who are willing to help.Ê All of this leads to a higher rate of student success.

MJ: Do you think that currently enrolled students who are doing well in a class can sometimes make a good tutor for that same class? Those student/tutors are doubly motivated, 1) to help classmates and 2) to learn and stay ahead of classmates to justify the teacher's faith in them as tutors.

CP: Yes. That's right.

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_{Last updated 5/24/04 jg}